


one

by bravepress



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-24
Updated: 2013-10-24
Packaged: 2017-12-30 09:06:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1016739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bravepress/pseuds/bravepress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em> "does it hurt?"</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"dying? not at all. quicker and easier than falling asleep." </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>harry's dreams, and his missing piece.</p>
            </blockquote>





	one

but that's just it, he thinks in the weeks after it ends. sure, he died (he  _died_ ) and came back again, but a bit of him stayed dead in the ghost of platform 9 3/4, along with the flayed semblance of voldemort.

and it was just so-

so  _easy._

easier than falling asleep. he could do it again, if he tried. now that a piece of him is stuck in that in-between place, he knows he could easily slip back towards it, board the train to who-knows-where. dumbledore would meet him there.

dumbledore, sirius, lupin, tonks, mum, dad.

all waiting for him, beyond the station.

he thinks of it often as he drifts off to sleep.

 

 

harry is not ron, at once eager and hesitant, moth-eaten at the corners by the kind of jealousy only visible on someone who has spent his life at the losing end of a competition.

harry is not hermione. he'll be the first to admit that he isn't the brains of this operation any more than she is inherently a risk-taker. she corrects teachers on academic standards, while he sits quietly beside her and admires her glow.

even when the war goes on-

even when the castle has been deconstructed brick by brick (some of the bricks now settled on top of students; you see a flash of brown hair and a plaid skirt and think  _i knew this girl_ )-

even then, there are three in two. hermione thinks of harry's voice and pushes on, organizing students, keeping the first years away from the middle of the great hall (a mess of jumbled spells, red and green jets firing everywhere. it reminds her of christmas). ron swipes back tears (one for fred, one for harry, one for the survivors), gives hermione's hand a squeeze, and runs to check on his family and see that neville hasn't tripped and impaled himself on the sword of gryffindor.

 

 

the oneness proves to be too intense, too suffocating. after seven years of opening himself to hermione and ron, he needs a breather.

harry heads back to grimmauld place, expecting emptiness and a little pease and instead finding dust and debris and more memories than he cares to encounter. he moves out again after two months, after the fifth time he accidentally picks something up that used to belong to sirius. after the sixteenth letter he recieves from ron and hermione (or ron&hermione, as he has begun to think of them)-

after two months of waking up with nightmares-

not nightmares, dreams of the station and what lies beyond it.

the remaining members of the order collectively take him in. he relocates houses whenever the dreams catch up with him. he plays with little teddy in his spare time. the kid's hair won't stay the same color for more than five minutes, and he loves muggle games like snakes and ladders. mr. weasely is particularly impressed with the lack of game piece participation ( _"why are they just sitting there? do you really have to move them on your own?"_ ). harry gets to know teddy better than harry knows himself.

the dreams slowly stop coming.

he doesn't feel the pull towards the ghost of the platform, anymore. the piece that was missing has begun to fill itself. 


End file.
